Verizon, Bandwidth.com ink VoIP termination deal.

The agreement, which may be precedent-setting, is both good news and bad news for incumbent telcos.

"A new traffic termination [agreement] between business VOIP provider Bandwidth.com and Verizon is good news and bad news for incumbent carriers. First the good news," writes ConnectedPlanet's Joan Engebretson.

"The good news is that the deal represents an acknowledgement on the part of the VOIP provider that its traffic may be subject to termination charges. Some VOIP providers have argued that they are not required to pay terminating access charges because VOIP is an information service, rather than a communications service. And some of those VOIP providers have gone to great lengths to avoid paying termination charges, including disguising the originating phone number to prevent the terminating carrier from billing for the traffica phenomenon sometimes called 'phantom traffic'," Engebretson writes.